Ships & Modules

So if you were doing your capship isk-up and skill-up over again what advice would you give a newb?

I'm a few mil away from affording the "first" capships skill! What I'm not so sure about is where to go after that. Although I want a long and illustrious career with cap ships I dont know where to begin.

Do i isk up for a carrier right away or do I get a freighter first so I can better afford the carrier?

Do carrier pilots find themselves needing to be part of null alliances or can they make do otherwise. Can I actaully make decent isk with a carrier or is ratting in a carrier all around a completely bad idea all the time?

Can you give this (perma) newb some ideas on the utility of the carrier and some general advice on how to proced in cap ships training?

There's a lot of wisdom out there, thanks in advance for some of it.

Dont use it for ratting unless u are part of a nullsec alliance that u trust and you are in a system that is either very quiet or has cynojammers and gatecamps active. otherwise you WILL loose it. same story for wormhole use. make sure the people you are with know what they are doing and even then you will still loose it, but hopefully after making enough isk to pay for it several times over. :)

If you can almost buy carrier skill then the worst thing you can do is buy the skill.

0) Do you have another account with a cyno alt or a friend/corp you trust to provide one. Otherwise your carrier is going to be stuck somewhere.

1) As Carriers are very expensive you won't be able to afford a carrier any way.

2) Being able to fly a carrier is completely different than being able to effectively use a carrier. Consider getting the following skills up. The actually carrier skills are generally the least of your concerns, and the other skills are very useful.

a) Basic shield/armor skills up to 5. (needed to use capital modules)

b) Remote repair for shields and armor. (repair is what carriers do in battle)

c) Logistics V (this is need for triage modules)

d) Various jump drive skills (needed for range and fuel use)

e) Battleship V in at least one race (needed to fly a carrier)

3) If you don't know what you will do with a carrier now you don't need one. Carriers are used to the following:

a) repair (ships, and POSes)

b) personal transport of ships and stuff in null sec.

c) Worm hole defense and site escalation

My advice is to take the money you are thinking of spending on carrier skills and get a logi ship. Running incursion
is a great way to get experience with RR, and rake in the isk. Ratting in a carrier is suicide outside protected alliance strongholds or in a wormhole. Even then you aren't going to be able to effectively solo in a carrier. You'd be better off using a T3 cruiser or BS.